Take Down Your Mask
by Yellowtail555
Summary: Dominique hates that Molly's in her Algebra II class; Molly loves it. But maybe there's more to their love and hate than a class. Muggle!AU.


_So this is my first femmeslash piece (and of course it's next gen) and also my first muggle!AU so that's exciting (I suppose). This is for The Femmeslash Project over at HPFC and I used the prompts 'fake' and 'mask'. Without further ado…_

Dominique kind of hates that Molly's in her Algebra II class.

Her cousin's two years younger than her, and a _Sophomore, _and maybe Dom shouldn't have failed Algebra II last year so she shouldn't have to re-take it but if Molly hadn't taken Algebra in middle school, they wouldn't have had to worry about it at all.

But they do because Molly _did_ take Algebra I in eighth grade and then Geometry as a Freshman and now she's taking _Dominique's_ Algebra II class and Dom thinks she has the right to be a little pissed off.

After all, it's Dom's senior year and it's supposed to be fun and how can she enjoy herself when she's sitting two rows behind her cousin who she's trying not to _kill_ every time Molly raises her hand.

Because Dom's always been an okay student and she doesn't tease kids who answer questions in math but Molly's a _Sophomore_ in a Junior class (full of, actually, mostly Seniors) and she really shouldn't be raising her hand.

-:-

Molly kind of loves that Dominique's in her Algebra II class.

Because Dominique's two years older and avoids her and at least this way she'll get to see her. (And, you know, she's in the same math class as her Senior cousin and that makes her feel good, too.)

Molly has never really been close with any of her cousins and she regrets this and maybe this way she'll get close to Dominique before she goes to college next year.

Dom has always been her favorite, really. Victorie's too old, being twenty-four and just out of University, ready to go off and really _do something_ and the only other cousins who are really her age are all boys, a big mob of Fred and James and Albus and Louis. Rose is a year younger, sure, but she's still in 8th grade due to a late birthday.

And, really, Molly's a Sophomore. She's not going to hang around with some middle-schooler.

So when she gets into the same Algebra II class as Dominique, she's a bit ecstatic, not that she'd ever let anyone know that.

-:-

Dominique and Molly… well, they're different.

Dominique can do whatever she wants, really, because to the school she's flawless and she likes the freedom- even if it does make her feel fake.

And Molly's kind of brilliant but she's doing everything she can to hide that fact and maybe it's not nearly enough because she's still in Algebra II when she shouldn't be but people don't talk about her and so she thinks she's doing well enough.

They're both kind of amazing but only Dominique gets credit for anything.

-:-

Dominique has known for years that Molly's going to _'do something'._

She may not like her younger cousin but she still knows because it's a bit obvious. You can tell by just the way that Molly behaves in classes that she's gonna be big.

She's actually a bit surprised that the rest of school hasn't caught on and made a big deal over her cousin because she just _knows_ that in a few years they're all going to be claiming to have been Molly's best friend 'before she was famous' and that Molly will let them because she's never minded sharing the limelight.

Dominique realizes that she thinks about her cousin a lot for someone who claims to hate Molly but what can she do when the girl's sitting two rows ahead of her.

Well, there's a whole host of things she _could_ do but she can hardly imagine what the response to those things would be.

-:-

Molly has known for years that Dominique is _'real'._

The kids at school, they try to make her cousin into this flawless, perfect (_fake_) girl but Dom won't have anything to do with it.

And Molly admires that because she thinks she would change if the kids at school worshipped her and Dom… Dominique won't.

Because she likes Dominique, even if Dominique doesn't like her.

It's as simple as that.

(Or is it?)

-:-

They're probably never going to be anything.

Molly's too shy to approach the subject and Dominique is too busy convincing herself that she hates Molly to realize that there's even a subject to approach.

Maybe one day they'll let down their masks and Molly will tell Dominique that she loves her, that she has for ages.

And maybe Dominique won't tell her off but think about it and perhaps she'll realize that she loves Molly, too.

Maybe, but probably not.


End file.
